The Sky's the Limit
by Flower and Sparky
Summary: She had never had known what is was liked to be loved, until she came to New York. There a world of mystery, murder, love and friendship awaits. Ryan/oc
1. Prologue

**Chapter 1.**

Maria Colton's birth into the world was not a happy one. Her mother, a pretty redhead at the ripe age of twenty-four, had stumbled into an off-duty policeman who was on his way home from a days work. She had grabbed his shoulder, and whispered a barely audible, "help me," before collapsing in the middle of the busy Irish street. The man, newly married himself, and unable to leave a woman helplessly lying on the street, picked her up and carried her to the nearest hospital, where the doctors saw her immediately. After a quick call to his wife the policeman anxiously paced in the clean, unfeeling waiting room of the emergency department.

A medical man walked out. He was short and balding, with blue surgeons scrubs. The police officer looked up hopefully, but dropped it at the sorrowful sigh.

"She's lost too much blood," the doctor said, "will be lucky to survive the C-section we had to perform."

"C-section?" The policeman inquired.

"Yes, the child may still survive."

"Child?" The policeman asked stupidly. It wasn't that he was not an intelligent man, but he didn't know what he was to do about the child, should it live.

"You may see the mother if you wish," the doctor informed him. The policeman slowly walked into the hospital bed where the pretty woman lay, her breathing shallow, her once pretty face marred in pain. She smiled weakly at the man who entered the room.

"Name her Maria," she had gasped, "Maria Colton." The words only just left her lips when she passed and the child had started to cry as if she knew what had happened. The policeman took one look at the dead woman before leaving the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Alright. I know this is another short chapter but I promise they will get longer... Honest. Oh! And for those of you here reading Aftermath (probably none of you) then I _will_ update at some point, but at the moment my inspiration for it is gone... I hope I get it back soon! **

**Xoxo... Sparky**

**DISCLAIMER! I do NOT own Castle and Ryan (as much as I wish I did) only the plot and anybody you don't recognize. Oh! And the policeman and Maria's mother in the prologue. **

**Chapter 2. **

I could not say that young Maria had a happy childhood. She was a child of the system; often going from one set of adopted parents to another, as they got bored with her or neglected her. She was the victim of exactly 4.5 abuse cases, causing her to be very quiet in her youth. However, that was not the case when she reached high school. In senior year the most disgusting type of gentleman attacked her in a dark alleyway, where he attempted to rape her. She was, however, saved by a pilot, on leave from America.

It seemed that the young woman's life started becoming more worthwhile after that incident in the alley. It seemed the young pilot refused to let her be, and simply forget him, although she couldn't, try as she might. The man had saved her life when he took her to New York and they lived at near-by the navy base. Which was why, when she completed her final year at a low docile, run-down high school, she joined the navy as a pilot and completed her first tour on an aircraft carrier before her nineteenth birthday. She was one hell of a pilot, 'a natural' they said. She just smiled and carried on with it. It was her job, but she saw it as more. Flying was her life, her output, the only thing she knew that was reliable to her. Well, apart from the pilot.

Unfortunately, he was killed during a tour in Afghanistan. She couldn't believe the news when she heard it. The man who had saved her had died and despite her best efforts she could not afford a flat and was living on base. The men, despite the teasing they gave her on her gender and her job, loved her like a sister and wouldn't let anyone from another squadron annoy her. She herself was quite quiet, ever since the night in the alley. The only person she had ever spoken to openly was the pilot that was killed, but after that she clammed up again, focusing on her flying and never letting anyone in. The men were worried about her but she knew how it was, she'd lived most of her life like it. Trust no one but yourself.


End file.
